572  Society  of  Pharmacy  of  Paris.     { ^cl^ms^ 
special  exception  in  favor  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  thus  practi- 
cally restoring  to  it  the  privileges  it  held  before  the  abolition  of  cor- 
porate bodies. 
The  history  of  the  College  during  the  next  succeeding  years  is 
rather  uncertain,  little  or  no  authentic  data  being  available.  It  is 
probable  that  during  the  reign  of  terror,  1793,  when  all  learned 
societies  and  academies  were  abolished  and  their  property  confis- 
cated, that  the  College  of  Pharmacy  was  also  included;  there  is  no 
record  of  such  abolition  however,  and  in  1794,  when  the  proposed 
Health  School  was  being  debated  in  the  National  Assembly,  the 
College  of  Pharmacy  is  mentioned  as  being  in  existence  and  being 
all  sufficient  for  the  education  of  prospective  pharmacists.  Condi- 
tions appear  to  have  been  considered  somewhat  critical,  however,  for 
in  1796  the  members  of  the  College  took  advantage  of  an  article 
in  the  fundamental  law  of  the  Republic  to  establish  themselves  into 
a  Free  Society  of  Pharmacy. 
The  law  that  made  this  change  appear  desirable  had  been 
enacted  on  September  23,  1795,  and  the  particular  article  referred 
to  gave  citizens  the  right  of  forming  establishments  of  education, 
and  institutions  and  free  societies  for  the  progress  of  science,  litera- 
ture and  the  arts. 
It  was  on  March  20,  1796,  that  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  as 
such,  went  out  of  existence,  by  the  action  of  its  own  members,  and 
was  nominally  replaced  by  the  Free  School  of  Pharmacy,  although 
in  fact  very  little  or  no  change  took  place. 
This  new  institution  was  recognized  by  the  Directory  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  1797,  and  in  this  same  year  the  first  number  of  The 
Journal  of  the  Society  of  Pharmacy  was  printed.  This  journal  was 
edited  by  M.  Fourcroy,  with  Demachy  and  Bouillon-Lagrange  as 
sub-editors.  After  two  years  of  independent  existence,  the  journal 
was  amalgamated  with  the  Annates  de  Chimie  to  form  the  still  exist- 
ing organ  of  the  society,  the  Journal  de  Pharmacie  et  de  Chimie. 
While  the  society  had  been  able  to  withstand,  without  any 
appreciable  change,  the  storm  and  stress  period  of  the  French 
Revolution,  it  fell  a  victim  to  the  love  for  organization,  or  rather  re- 
organization, developed  by  Napoleon  on  his  accession  as  Emperor. 
By  an  imperial  decree,  in  1803,  a  new  State  institution  for  phar- 
maceutical instruction  was  created,  the  chief  or  superior  school  of 
which  was  to  be  located  in  Paris.     For  the  accommodation  of  this 
